A tory councillor embroiled in a race row should quit his position as shadow cabinet member for equality, according to his opposite number.

Coun Abdul Khan, deputy council leader and cabinet member for equalities, has called on Coun Jaswant Birdi to step down from his position after an independent investigator found he was racially abusive to a Sri Lankan shopkeeper when he threatened to close his shop down.

But Coun Khan says he believes Coun Birdi, who represents Bablake, should not be allowed to continue in his role and that the Conservatives should consider removing him from the party.

Recently, fellow Bablake councillor Glenn Williams was forced to resign from the Conservatives after the Telegraph revealed a stream of private messages he sent to a Tory colleague that were branded “racist” by other councillors.

Asked if he thought Coun Birdi should resign from the council entirely, he said: “We thought Glenn Williams should, but he didn’t.

“He should be removed from the group. What was in the report is incredible.

“He used discriminatory language against a person. To call somebody a name based on their ethnic background, and ridicule the guy, that’s discrimination.”

But Conservative leader John Blundell said his party would stand by Coun Birdi and that they would wait to see what evidence emerged in the ethics committee hearing.

He said: “It all seems to be based on opinion. Assumptions have been made over a sequence of events.

“There’s evidence that Jaswant is keen to be included that wasn’t included at the time. I think that’s why Jaswant has asked for the ethics committee to consider it.”

Jaswant Singh Birdi during the Election count and announcements at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.

He added: “We’re standing by Jaswant. We’ll have to wait and see what happens at the ethics committee. We’ll look at the results of that and make comments depending on the outcome of that.

“Jaswant feels he’s been hard done by. The report is not favourable to Jaswant but we know he feels strongly that certain elements have not been given sufficient weight.”

Asked how he felt about a second of his party’s councillors being embroiled in a racism row, he said: “Glenn Williams confirmed all the comments, so I don’t equate the two.”

Coun Birdi declined to comment in the wake of the findings of the report, but when asked about the racism allegations at the time of the shop bust up in January, he said: “I have no comment to make on that, that’s his version.